Learn to program with me!

              To start things off, Happy New Years to all of you, and I hope it was a great celebration for you all, if for nothing else than the fact that you have made it yet another year, which just means all the more possibilities. That can be scary or amazing, and to be honest, I’m hoping for the latter.  As is tradition, I have set up my own New Year’s Resolutions, much like many folks, but mine are not quite the same as most. I have no interest in weight loss/gain, and I’m already a successful non-smoker for just over a year now (Woo-hoo!). My concerns lie more along what I hope to achieve professionally.

                 Last year held a lot of promise for years to come.  Ironically, through most of the year, I felt useless, as if I had accomplished nothing I had planned in any sense.  However, when I look back on everything now, I see that though there were not many immediate effects, a lot of solid decisions were decided upon, and the groundwork for something amazing has already been laid.  I have always considered myself somewhat of an ambitious person. I will be the first to say there is room for improvement in this area, but comparatively speaking, relating to most of the people I’ve ever met or known in my life, let’s just say I’m pretty freaking ambitious.  This is just a roundabout way of saying I realized that there is legitimately no reason I can’t obtain anything I want, and what I want is achieve a better quality of life. Let’s face it: dreading payday because you have to make funds stretch between countless bills, or being afraid to answer the phone or check the mail because of bill collectors is no way to live.  I’ve watched this happen my entire life, and I will not play into this.  So I suppose what I want is relatively simple. I want a financially comfortable life.  And I want it to be as comfortable as possible. From what I have seen, by simply making the right decisions, that is more than likely to happen. 

Uh...is it too late to go with Plan B?

 
                 This is where it gets fun.  You see, everyone talks about roadblocks, and when they do, they’re met with half-thought retorts.  “Oh, you never get anywhere if you just give up.” Or, “You gotta keep tryin’.” This one I love, “You think anything like that just gets HANDED to you?” I mean, come on guys, seriously? Well, while there is a grain of truth to these statements, believe me when I say I completely commiserate with you on aggravation resulting from hearing these insincere replies.  I know this sounds like a load of complaining, but it is actually a lead in to explain my latest roadblock.  So sit back, prop your legs, and just be glad this isn’t happening to you right now. And if it is, just know I am truly sorry, because I know you’re pain.

                Anyway, as you may or may not be aware, until recently I was enrolled at the local community college.  Things were going swell while I was working part-time, as I was eligible for the federal Pell Grant (great resource, seriously check into this if you haven’t already).  Once I started working full-time, I was ineligible (as to be expected) and therefore had to find other means of which to pay for my schooling.

Yeah, those were some dark times.

                Since we didn’t have enough money for full-time classes, I decided that part-time would be enough, as that would at least keep my classes accurate and up to date, ensuring they would not expire for age.  It cost just short of $500 for one class and the book for that class, so we were already over budget there. Then we found the school had a payment plan, where we had to pay the balance in thirds, one third up front. I thought we had found a great way to get out of a sticky situation. Well…I just thought I had found that way.

                I was able to take Pre-Calculus Algebra for the semester, which was good because that was the last core class I needed.  Everything was going great, until the following year.  I took this class in the fall of 2013, and the school waited until the summer of 2014, right before I enroll for another semester, to inform me that they had failed to withdraw the payments from my account, and they were therefore owed 2/3 of the money for the class.  Now, I want to emphasize that they did not take the money out. Just remember that as we go through this story.

                We figure it must have been a misunderstanding, so we sign up for a payment plan, at which point they will debit our account for a portion of the balance every month until we are made whole with the school. Okay, simple enough. They still didn’t debit the account, claiming they had the card declined and then just didn’t try again, stating they called, but mysteriously never leaving a trace of such on our end or even theirs.  So we set up an accelerated payment plan, to pay it off faster. Looking back, I know this seems redundant, but we had to follow all channels available, and it was truly crazy that it kept happening. Well, wouldn’t you know it? It happened again.  This time, they had no record that we had set up a payment plan at all. Furthermore, they had no records of who called us to inform us the card was declined. This has been ongoing since September 2014.  Feel free to compare that to the time stamp of this post, and you see how ridiculous this is. We will make one payment, through our bank who will wire them the money, and I will then demand my transcripts. Then I will apply at the local university, where I know my 3.8 GPA and willingness to succeed will actually be appreciated.   

"Okay, so let me get this straight. You came here...to the community college...for a degree? What the hell is wrong with you?"

                 I say this not to complain or draw attention to my problems. I left the name of the school out for just this reason. The people who know me personally know exactly what I am referring to, and anyone else shouldn’t be concerned with it. Concern yourself with the point that you are not alone. So this is my New Year's Resolution. To make serious progress on my decisions made and let nothing stand in my way. Because one thing I have figured out is that not only is nothing handed to you, it is held back from you. Sooner or later, you have to start biting and clawing to take what is yours.  Well, it’s time to draw some blood. Because I know what’s mine. And I’m taking it.  I hope you can say the same.